The Massage Room
by Ikonopeiston
Summary: Just a drabble about a man and his masseur. This is from the earlier more innocent days.


A/N – I own nothing of these characters and events I portray here. They are the sole property of Square/Enix who do not know what to do with them.

Some with long memories may recognize this. I posted it in another form earlier, became disgusted with it, withdrew it from view and have done an over haul.

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In The Massage Room 

A man lay on the padded table, only his head visible above the starched sheet covering his body. To the casual observer, there was nothing to distinguish him from any number of other men who sought out the attentions of a masseur to ease the discomfort of strained muscles or to produce a general feeling of relaxation and well-being.

But this was not an ordinary man; this was the man around whom this entire establishment was organized, the center and heart of the house, the reason for the trainers, the guards, the servants and, yes, the masseurs. Under the concealing sheet was the unique, unmistakable body of the man who had been dead and was now alive – Nooj, the hero and victim of the debacle on Mount Gagazet.

He was waiting, alone there in the room, for his favorite masseur, a blind man called Tiresis, the man he hoped could coax out the lingering aches from his latest fall.

It was becoming tedious, this inability to keep his balance. He was tired of the incessant efforts required to save his pride and his remaining flesh from these accidental sprawls. The cane helped most of the time but he was impatient with his dependency on another piece of metal and kept trying to get along without it. Also, there were the attacks which seemed to be increasing in frequency and intensity. When the pain in the missing limbs hit suddenly, he often lost control with equal suddenness and was catapulted into brutal muscle spasms which resulted in – surprise – another fall. He was generally able to keep the pain to a minimum when he was awake by using the resources he had learned as a boy, but when he slept and particularly when he dreamed, it was another matter altogether.

A short time before, he had taken a break from his training exercises and retired to the Meditation Room to lie down for a while. Without intending to, he had fallen asleep and dreamed that old dream of the Mountain. The remembered agony, re-experienced in the missing but somehow still sensate left arm and leg, ejected him violently from his sleep and flung him to the floor where it took him long minutes to regain the mastery of his mind and thus the control of his body.

So here he was, with fresh scrapes and bruises, awaiting the attentions of a skilled soother of sore muscles. He shifted uneasily; sometimes it seemed as though his efforts to climb back to where he had been were not only futile but self-defeating. With every step forward, he felt himself slide back past the beginning and to have further to go than at the start of his journey. With a stifled sigh, he turned his face into the thin pillow upon which his head rested and closed his eyes.

The entrance of Tiresis was silent; the first Nooj knew of the man's presence was the flicking away of the sheet and the soft touch of hands on his remaining leg.

"Now, what's the problem today?" the blind man inquired rhetorically.

"Just a little too much exercising this morning; I'm stiff and need some loosening up."

"Who're you trying to fool, lad? You're not stiff from exercise; I feel bruising here and here and here." The fingers flicked quickly over the flesh beneath them. "You've been falling down again. People think that a blind man doesn't know what's going on but sometimes I think that when Yevon took the eyes out of my head, He put them in my fingers. I tell you, I see more than you might think."

The only response was a grunt as Nooj covered his face with his arm.

"I can feel some tightness here in your groin. Don't resist so much. Your evening with your lady must have gone well or you wouldn't be so defensive about the wrong things." The hands moved up toward the chest as the masseur continued his assessment. "I'm sensing something here on the left side – something that isn't machina and still isn't flesh. Are you having pain in this region?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Because there's something strange here. My fingers can't reach into the machina places but I can still feel something in there that isn't right. It's like a big bruise or muscle knot that needs to be stroked out and I can't get to it. So I think it must be something you know about."

"How could I know something that isn't there?" The tall man was disinclined to continue the discussion.

"It's there all right. I just don't know what it is or what it's doing. Let me see..." Tiresis probed more deeply into the spots where the prostheses were implanted, digging deeply into the interface between flesh and metal. As the fingers explored the areas, Nooj gave an inadvertent cry of distress.

"Sorry, lad. Didn't mean to hurt you. You're tender there, aren't you? I can go right down to the bone anywhere else on your body and you don't flinch. This is sensitive – right?"

"Yes," he gasped clutching the edge of the table, his teeth clenched.

"That means there's something there. Want me to try to ease it out? I think that may be why you're having so much trouble."

"I don't know... I just had a bad time not long ago. Don't know if I'm up to another." Nooj was surprised to hear himself admit to weakness.

"Want to tell me about it? You should always tell the truth to your Healer and your masseur; we're here to help. There's nobody else in the room, right? So you can say what you want without any worry. In my profession, one of the first things we learn is not to talk about our clients."

Without thinking that the gesture could not be seen, Nooj nodded his head almost shamefully. "Here's what happened. I fell asleep and dreamed about the thing that happened on the Mountain – the time I lost the arm and leg. And then I was on the floor, awake and feeling them going again. I felt them being destroyed exactly the way it was when it really happened. I had fallen off the couch and was thrashing about on the floor against the furniture until I could get control again. That's what it was..."

Tiresis nodded in his turn. "I'm not surprised. This happens pretty often, doesn't it? Sometimes when you're not dreaming or thinking about the Gagazet thing? Sometimes, even when you're awake?"

"Yes. The Healers say it's something called 'phantom limb' pain. But it's real – there's nothing 'phantom' about it."

"No, there isn't. I've heard of this before but I've never treated a case. Are you willing to let me try? At least to ease what you're still feeling."

"Go ahead; it can't be worse than it is."

Tiresis laughed, "I appreciate the vote of confidence. Now, I don't expect I can do much about the attacks themselves, but I think I can make you more comfortable. Try to relax and let me work."

Nooj gratefully abandoned himself to the schooled hands of the blind man, still astonished that he would have so opened his confidence to another and to one who was not even of his kin. It was unlike him to be so free in his speech to anyone, even those who were the nearest he had to true familiars. When he paused to think it through, perhaps not being one of his proudly stoic kin was the principal reason Tiresis seemed safe to confide in. The blind man was in no position to make judgments or to betray him to those who might wish him more harm. His ruminations grew less engrossing as the soothing motions of the masseur's fingers began to relax him and make him sleepy. He fought the impulse to doze for fear of another unpleasant awakening.

As though he were in truth the seer he proclaimed himself, Tiresis crooned, "Go on and sleep if you need to. You won't wake up that way again. I tell you, you can control it. But you should consult the Healers; you don't want to let any of this slide. There are lots of way to get a handle on this." His hands continued their gentle probing, leaving a warm comfort behind. His patient could no longer resist the need and soon the blind man felt the easy level breathing that spoke to his clever fingers of sleep. Gently, he spread the linen sheet back over the man and walked softly to the dressing room, Instructing the attendant Hypello to alert him when Nooj awoke. And the room was quiet again.

7/15/045


End file.
